I don't put much stock in the meanderings I see on this thread about how effective petitions are. I my experience I can only recall one true example of a successful petition. It had to do with a ban on "bread slicing" machines and it's recall based on a successful petition.
"1943 U.S. ban on sliced bread
During 1943, U.S. officials imposed a short-lived ban on sliced bread as a wartime conservation measure.[7][8] The ban was ordered by Claude R. Wickard who held the position of Food Administrator, and took effect on January 18, 1943. According to the New York Times, officials explained that "the ready-sliced loaf must have a heavier wrapping than an unsliced one if it is not to dry out." It was also intended to counteract a rise in the price of bread, caused by the Office of Price Administration's authorization of a ten percent increase in flour prices.[9]
In a Sunday radio address on January 24, Mayor LaGuardia, having been petitioned by New York bread producers, suggested that bakeries that had their own bread-slicing machines should be allowed to continue to use them, and on January 26, 1943, a letter appeared in the New York Times from a distraught housewife:
I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that's ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry![10]
On January 26, however, John F. Conaboy, the New York Area Supervisor of the Food Distribution Administration, warned bakeries, delicatessens, and other stores that were continuing to slice bread to stop, saying that "to protect the cooperating bakeries against the unfair competition of those who continue to slice their own bread... we are prepared to take stern measures if necessary."[11]
On March 8, 1943, the ban was rescinded. Wickard stated that "Our experience with the order, however, leads us to believe that the savings are not as much as we expected, and the War Production Board tells us that sufficient wax paper to wrap sliced bread for four months is in the hands of paper processor and the baking industry.[9]"
To the best of my knowledge and after much research, this is the only practical and viable example of a "petition" actually working in practice as opposed to theory.
With such important issues as this occupying the minds of consumers, I seriously doubt if petitions have actually saved or caused re introduction of such plebeian things as film or film emulsions.????
Plebeian
ple·be·ian (pl-bn)
adj.
1. Of or relating to the common people of ancient Rome: a plebeian magistrate.
2. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of commoners.
3. Unrefined or coarse in nature or manner; common or vulgar: plebeian tastes.
n.
1. One of the common people of ancient Rome.
2. A member of the lower classes.
3. A vulgar or coarse person.
[From Latin plbius, from plbs, plb-, the common people; see pel-1 in Indo-European roots.]
ple·beian·ism n.
ple·beian·ly adv.
